Marjorie Langmuir in action for Scotland [from One Hundred Years of Scottish Hockey]

Marjorie Langmuir has an extraordinary claim to fame as she not only represented Scotland in three different sports, she did so in the same calendar year, 1932. What is more, two of those appearances came on consecutive days, playing badminton against England in London on a Friday then travelling overnight to Belfast to captain Scotland’s hockey team against Ireland. All this was done as an amateur, paying her own travel expenses while juggling the demands of a full time job. She was one of a generation of pioneering Scottish sportswomen who performed remarkable feats but received little recognition at the time and have since been largely forgotten. However, having discovered her story I nominated her for the inaugural Scottish Women in Sport Hall of Fame and I am delighted she was selected as one of the first inductees. Born in Glasgow in 1905, Langmuir was one of five daughters educated at Hillhead High School where she developed her love of sport. She was West of Scotland Junior Tennis Champion but it was in hockey that she first made her mark at national level. She was capped in 1923 as an 18-year-old student and by the time she returned to Hillhead in 1927 as a PE teacher, she was a fixture in the Scotland hockey team, playing in 36 consecutive internationals. She also made quite a name for herself on the tennis courts and won the Scottish ladies doubles championship in 1926, while at badminton she first represented Scotland in 1930, going on to win eleven caps and twice won the Scottish mixed doubles championship.

Her great ‘triple’ international feat came in 1932. On Thursday 3 March she caught the night train from Glasgow to London, where she played mixed doubles and ladies’ doubles badminton at the Royal Horticultural Hall against England. She then travelled overnight to Belfast where, on Saturday afternoon, she captained Scotland to a 3-2 victory at hockey over Ireland, scoring twice to help turn round a two goal half-time deficit. That summer, in July, she represented Scotland twice at tennis against England. Her hockey career was crowned in glory in 1933, when she captained the only Scotland women’s team ever to win in England. In fact, the 2-1 victory in front of 5,000 spectators at Merton Abbey was the only time Scotland defeated England, home or away, between 1909 and 1972. It was a sharp contrast to Marjory’s first game against England ten years earlier which ended in a 13-0 defeat. That autumn she led Scotland to a 5-4 victory over USA at Old Anniesland, her final match before retiring.

She left Scotland in 1934, emigrating to Canada to marry her former badminton partner, James Barr, who had been appointed professional at the Montreal Badminton and Squash Club. She continued to play in tennis tournaments in Canada and spent the rest of her life there, dying in Montreal in 1984.

* The only other Scottish athlete I can find who represented their country in three sports in the same year was Isabel Barr (later Newstead), who won Paralympic medals in 1984 at swimming, shooting and athletics. She has also been inducted in the Hall of Fame.